All children deserve to be safe at school. Yet it turns out that New York City does not provide kids who attend private schools with the same level of protection as those at public schools. That’s not only unfair, it’s unsafe. And it ought to change. As matters stand, only public schools in the city are eligible for NYPD school-safety agents. Private schools must provide security officers on their own dime. And while child-safety is an issue no decent school would ignore, the fact is many private schools struggle to cover the costs of adequate security — and sometimes the...

A majority of American parents with grade-school children say they would feel safer if their child attended a school with an armed guard, according to a new Rasmussen poll. Sixty-two percent of those surveyed said they’d feel safer if their child attended such a school, against only 24 percent who say they’d feel safer if their child went to a school where no adult was allowed to own a gun. Fifteen percent weren’t sure. The poll comes a week after Arkansas’s attorney general, Democrat Dustin McDaniel, said school districts in his state can’t employ teachers and staff as armed guards...

A press release from gun-rights group Rocky Mountain Gun Owners announces that last night it gave a firearms class to 300 teachers in Colorado. There was no cost for admission. "Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, Colorado's largest grassroots gun rights organization, provided a free firearms training course for 300 Colorado teachers," the group says. "The 300 men and women braved snow and inclement weather to attend the four hour course focusing on firearms safety and handling, and Colorado gun laws." In a statement, the executive director of the group, Dudley Brown, says, "Colorado teachers have been beating down our doors to...

The National Rifle Association is airing a television ad (and has on its website this four-minute video) that says the private school that President Obama’s daughters attend, Sidwell Friends School, has 11 armed guards. It doesn’t. In fact, it has no armed guards. My Post colleague Glenn Kessler, who writes The Fact Checker column, wrote about the issue here and quoted Ellis Turner, associate head of Sidwell Friends, as saying: “Sidwell Friends security officers do not carry guns.” Parents and students say they have never seen one either. The president’s children are protected by Secret Service agents, which is required...

The NRA’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, has been the subject of Beltway ire for his proposal to put police officers in schools across the country; the White House, lawmakers, and political analysts on both sides of the aisle have summarily denounced him. Rewind just 13 years, though, and many of these lawmakers were cheering a proposal that bears a remarkable resemblance to the one set forth by the NRA: President Clinton’s “COPS in Schools” program. In October 1998, Clinton announced the $60 million grant program, which was housed in the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services...

(CNSNews.com) - When children from Sandy Hook Elementary school return to class in neighboring Monroe, Conn. today, they'll be entering "the safest school in America," according to the Associated Press. "Law enforcement officers have been guarding the new school, and by the reckoning of police, it is 'the safest school in America,'" the AP reported Thursday. "I think right now it has to be the safest school in America," Monroe police Lt. Keith White was quoted as saying. Having armed guards in schools is the National Rifle Association's suggestion for keeping children safe from the kind of terror that happened...

Some interesting news has broken in the wake of the latest push for gun control by President Obama and Senate Democrats: Obama sends his kids to a school where armed guards are used as a matter of fact. The school, Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, has 11 security officers and is seeking to hire a new police officer as we speak. If you dismiss this by saying, "Of course they have armed guards -- they get Secret Service protection," then you've missed the larger point. The larger point is that this is standard operating procedure for the school, period....

Don’t mess with Marlboro Township. The leafy, well-heeled New Jersey suburb will station a permanent armed cop in each of its nine schools starting Jan. 2. It’s apparently the first district nationwide bent on packing heat in every schoolhouse since madman Adam Lanza gunned down 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14. “We’ve made a collective decision as a town that we need armed security in each of our schools,” Mayor Jonathan Hornik told The Post. “With this new evil, you can’t just sit there and hope that it doesn’t happen in...

The Blog Gregory Mocks LaPierre for Proposing Armed Guards, but Sends Kids to High-Security School 4:58 PM, Dec 23, 2012 • By DANIEL HALPER Single Page Print Larger Text Smaller Text Alerts David Gregory mocked the NRA's Wayne LaPierre for proposing that armed guards be at every school in America. But the NBC host seems to have no problem with armed guards protecting his kids everyday where they attend school in Washington, D.C. "You proposed armed guards in school. We'll talk about that in some detail in a moment. You confronted the news media. You blamed Hollywood and the gaming...

Before Connecticut tragedy, administration eliminated emergency preparedness program,let school violence prevention programs lapse UPDATED 23:43 PM EST, December 14, 2012 Why It Matters: Politicians across the country are vowing to do more to prevent school shooting tragedies like the one that unfolded Friday in Newtown, Conn. But over the last few years, the Obama administration and Congress allowed funding for several school safety initiatives to lapse. Beneath the expressions of grief, sorrow and disbelief over the Connecticut school massacre lies an uneasy truth in Washington: over the last few years the Obama administration and Congress quietly let federal funding for...

An Oregon lawmaker contends the massacre that left more than two dozen people dead at a Connecticut elementary school is another "heartbreaking failure" of school personnel to ensure protection, and is a reminder that teachers should be allowed to carry guns in the classroom.

The watchdogs who patrol Charlotte Ann Cox Elementary School in Cedar Park and Annie Purl Elementary in Georgetown are a special breed. They're friendly and huggable and have names like Fred, Wes and Bill. "One of the great things about being a watchdog is that every kid knows I'm there to help them," said Wes Watkins, father of a Purl kindergartner. "The students smile when they see me, and my son is proud to have me on campus." Watkins is among approximately 90 fathers in the Georgetown school district and about the same number in the Leander district who serve...

NEW YORK — Although three years have passed since the Sept. 11 terror attacks (search), children are returning to schools this fall that still are not adequately prepared for terrorist incidents or other types of emergencies, according to security and educational experts. "Unfortunately, really, across the board, we are complacent," said Juval Aviv, president and CEO of Interfor Inc., an international corporate intelligence and investigations firm. "Not enough has been done in education to educate those who are responsible for the safety of kids going back to school.

March 7, 2003 $60 Million Package Aims to Improve School SecurityBy PHILIP SHENON ASHINGTON, March 6 — The Bush administration is stepping up federal efforts to prepare the nation's schools for possible terrorist strikes and is about to announce a $60 million program to help school districts design response and evacuation plans for emergencies including chemical or biological attacks, administration officials said today. The officials said the program, which is expected to be made public on Friday by the Departments of Homeland Security and Education, was not meant to suggest that the government believed that schools faced a special threat...